Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Does punishment work?

We discussed punishment in previous blogs. The LA Times
bring the issue back, this time in school settings.

“School administrators
typically have handled misbehavior problems by suspending students. But this
year Markham and Gompers middle schools have reported marked reductions in that
form of discipline — as has the L.A. Unified School District overall, where the
suspension rate dropped to 1.5% last year from 8% in 2008.”

“The drop came after
the Los Angeles Board of Education and L.A. schools chief John Deasy called for
fewer suspensions as concern grew nationwide that removing students from school
imperils their academic achievement.”

Kudos to the chief. I understand that schools may suspend
problematic students for safety reasons. Aggression (physical and verbal,
including cursing), property destruction, class disruption, threats (including
bringing weapons to school), are all safety concerns.

However, from a discipline point of view sending problematic
students home not only doesn’t address the real problem but often times rewards
bad behaviors. Students who don’t want to go to school get to be home playing
videogames, or something worse, frequently unsupervised because their parents
need to work.

I’m aware of the fact that teachers and school
administrators have a hard time dealing with misbehaviors, especially since
years of tight budgets have left limited funding for the critical extra staff
and training.

“Principal Traci Gholar said she
readily suspended disruptive students in 2011-12, her first year at the helm,
to drive home to families that she was intent on building a safe, orderly and
positive school climate. When superiors questioned her high suspension rate,
Gholar asked for new resources that would support alternative disciplinary approaches: a conflict resolution
specialist, a restorative justice coordinator, more campus aides, performing arts
events and other activities.”

Alternative disciplinary
approaches,
interesting. Since I know you are a fervent follower of our blogs, you are
familiar with alternative forms of discipline, positive ones aimed at building
behavior repertoires, including life skills.

“The extra help appears to have
made a difference. According to school data, incidents involving student
misbehavior declined from 1,035 in the last school year to 663 as of May of
this year. And although most of the misbehavior was serious enough to warrant
suspensions, Gompers made a greater effort to address it in alternative ways,
reducing the suspension rate to 3% from 30% last year.”

“Markham has also reported
significant progress. Student incidents have declined from 1,732 in the last
school year to 1,463 this year and the suspension rate has fallen to 7% from
12%. Like Gompers, Markham has received extra help, including a restorative
justice coordinator.”

Wow! These alternative strategies not only sound good but they work.

“As Gompers students celebrated
"peace week," featuring games and banners decrying violence and
bullying, eighth-graders Wesley Price, Cindy Birrueta and Maria Gomez said the
atmosphere on campus has improved greatly. Gomez said that "community
building circles," in which students share experiences, build trust and
forge friendships, have helped reduce tensions.”

In other
words, proactive strategies to foster and encourage appropriate behaviors and
create a positive atmosphere (“peace week”, visual reminders, support groups, special
activities to increase motivation, etc.), address the real problem. As we
always say, behaviors are communication. When an individual misbehaves he/she
is expressing a need. By punishing, the needs remain unresolved.

Often times
I hear the statement “there are no real and consistent consequences in school
settings,” meaning punishment.

I think the
problem is that there are no real and consistent rewards, making learning fun,
teachers that know how to get the attention of their students by motivating them
rather than policing or forcing.

Let’s stop
the madness and start training and educating parents and teachers on effective
ways of teaching and fostering appropriate, functional, social significant
behaviors. It would be cost-effective by rising and nurturing productive
members of society. It is the right thing to do.